3450

It was delayed yesterday but is on for 15 min from now…

https://www.spacex.com/webcast

3451

Even though it is over, that link works to watch the full replay

3452

Great webcast and result. I was surprised at the emotions this caused me as soon as the capsule was jettisoned at high speed - had this type of system been available during the challenger era, perhaps it would have saved them acknowledging differences between a rocket capsule and space shuttle…

3453

I don’t think they had any forewarning on Challenger, so probably not. It seems like they need several seconds at a minimum to spot critical danger, make a decision, and separate far enough so as not to get caught in the blast.

3454

Actually, they made a point that the decision to jettison has to be all automated. Ground control had no part in making it.

3455

OK, so that takes out a bit of time, they still need to clear the area - there was quite a lot of time in the test between separation and the stage one booster exploding.

3456

Yeah - I do not get the impression that the capsule would make a safe return if the first sign of danger was the booster stage exploding.

3457

Reports of have been inaccurate by some places. The abort happened first. The booster exploding was because of the aerodynamics stress after capsule too off.

3458
3459

I’d be interested to know if the capsule can recover from a slight spin or alteration in trajectory. The test today was kind of an “ideal” situation.

3460

Capsule abort mechanisms are mostly to make us feel like, if something bad happens, that at least we tried. Strapping a rocket to your butt and lighting it is inherently risky, and most of the things likely to go wrong can’t be recovered from.

3461

That’s patently false. This thing is not some fake system to make people feel good.

3462

The trunk (for unpressurized cargo) attached to the capsule goes with it at first and has fins which should help stabilize it as they escape.

3463

They also mentioned in the webcast that at high altitude, since there’s not really any air pressure for fins to push against, they used the thrusters built into the capsule to re-orient and stabilize the module. There’s also ballast sled than can be shifted around to control the capsule’s angle of attack and thus shape its re-entry profile.

3464

Behold the sun!

image
image1272×715 474 KB

3465

Where’s Waldo?

3466
3467

And now it gets blown up by Klingons.

3468

That’s V’ger.

3469

Just in case you’re feeling all proud about how far Voyager 2 has gone - if it were pointing toward Proxima Centauri, it would have traveled about 0.046% of the way. In 40 years (without accounting for the looping around when it first started). (Voyager 2 is 17 light-hours away; Proxima Centauri is 4.24 light years away)

Someone check my math - I calculate that it would arrive in about 87,000 years